Scouring the Business of Technology

Best Lightweight Linux Distro

The main idea of this test was to see how well these distros would run in a restrained environment. To this end, they were tested, where possible, on an ancient Compaq laptop with 256MB RAM, Vesa graphics, a 4GB hard drive and a 200MHz Pentium processor. For the sake of sanity, all distros were then also tested in a Qemu virtual environment with the same limitations, but this time using one half of a 3GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

There were no special tests other than to install these distros (which was testing enough) and attempts to do some normal desktop tasks.

Damn Small Linux

CrunchBang

Lubuntu

Puppy Linux

Slitaz

Tiny Core Linux

Unity Linux

Vector Linux

Verdict: Slitaz.

It’s fast, easy on memory, and comes with a considered selection of apps. Not being able to install new software easily apart from stuff in the Slitaz package format is one of the few drawbacks, but for a fast, lightweight desktop it’s hard to beat..

But that’s according to TuxRadar. Your preference may vary. As always, it depends on your situation.